We are all on the journey we call life and every day we are getting closer to the moment when we will leave this world, and what is at the end no one can say yet. However, in the past few years, researchers have come to some fascinating insights into what happens in our brains as we take our last breath, giving us a glimpse into the experience of death.
What do near-death experiences reveal about the brain? A close brush can leave a lasting mental legacy—and may tell us about how the mind functions under extreme conditions https://t.co/9rEs1q64on pic.twitter.com/SbGK2V5HB1
— Scientific American (@sciam) May 21, 2020
For example, in February 2022, scientists accidentally recorded the brain activity of an 87-year-old man who died after a heart attack. Before that fatal moment, the patient had been fitted with a device that continuously monitored his brain waves as part of his epilepsy treatment, but electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings from the time of his death allowed researchers to gain some unexpected insights into what was going on when we cross the threshold of death.
Amazingly, the EEGs showed that patterns of brain activity associated with dreaming and remembering were activated just as the heart stopped beating, continuing for some time afterward. Although it is impossible to draw firm conclusions from this information, the brain activity associated with memory retrieval may indicate that indeed we see our lives pass before our eyes when we die.
This reasoning/conclusion is further strengthened by the results of a follow-up study involving four myocardial infarction patients who died in the neurointensive care unit (NICU) at Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan. By observing the neural oscillations of the patients as they died, the researchers noticed a burst of activity in the brain’s so-called “hot zone,” which is located at the intersection of the temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes and is associated with both dreaming and conscious thought.
However, to understand how these patterns of brain activity translate into actual experience, the researchers had to talk to people who had died but then come back to life. As part of an ongoing project looking at the experiences of patients who have died and then been resuscitated, the researchers recently published insights they came to after a series of interviews conducted at multiple hospitals in the US and UK.
This is what happens when you die, according to people who died: ‘I saw my own unconscious body’https://t.co/Wky6BNmfYs
— Dawn Gombos (@DawnGombos1) September 3, 2022
Publishing some of their data in 2019, the authors revealed that 86 percent of study participants reported seeing a bright light, while 54 percent relived major life events, confirming two of the most common clichés associated with dying. Overall, the death experience was described as pleasant and uplifting, with 95 percent of respondents saying they felt a sense of joy and peace as they left their bodies, and the same percentage saying the event had changed them in a positive way.
Presenting more detailed results earlier this year, the researchers revealed that many patients were aware of the medical procedures being performed on them while undergoing CPR, even though they were in a coma. Additionally, more than a fifth experienced a “transcendental recalled death experience,” meaning that their departure and return allowed them to reevaluate and reframe their life story, identity, and goals.
Despite these insights, death remains a vague and distant subject that deftly eludes any scientific explanation. For example, it is not clear how or why the brain responds to its own destruction by generating such ineffable experiences.
One theory—though largely speculative and unproven—is that the brain releases the powerful psychedelic compound DMT as we die in an attempt to keep neurons alive in the absence of oxygen. If true, this could explain some of the spiritual insights received at the moment of death, although more research is needed before such claims can be justified.
For now, we can’t say for sure what happens when we die. Don’t worry though, we’ll all find out sooner or later.
Source: iflscience
2023-12-11 11:17:20
#brain #breath
